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Arpan Christian
Illness is an abnormal condition which affects human being and cause burden for the family members who care for them, present study focused on the physical, psychological, social, financial burden and coping strategies among caregivers with Objective: i) to assess the burden and coping strategies, ii) to compare the burden and coping strategies, iii) to find association between burden and coping strategies iv) identify the relationship between the burden and coping strategies Material and Method: Descriptive survey approach to assess the burden and coping strategies among the caregivers of mental ly ill clients, Shrirampur, Data were collected from 100 caregivers of mentally ill clients; the modified semi structured tested interview schedule was used to collect data from 06/01/2014 to 08/02/2014. Results: Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analysis, findings in relation to demographic data of caregivers revealed that (26%) were in the age group of 29 to 38 years, (60%) were male, (26%) had secondary education, (48%) had agriculture as a occupation, (76%) had less than Rs 5,000 mont hly income, (33%) were parents, (67%) living with relative, (22%) had health problems whereas demographic data of mentally ill clients revealed that (49%) were in the age group of 21 to 30 years, (36%) had affected with schizophrenia, (85%) had average burden. Overall burden mean score (31.85+7.96) which is (32%), higher mean score was obtained in financial aspect (9.05+2.10) which has (45%) indicates that caregiver had mild burden, overall coping strategies (78.58+8.89) which has (46%), higher mean score w as obtained in the psychological/ emotional aspect (20.43+2.34) which has (46%) indicate that caregiver followed partially adaptive coping strategies. There is a significant association between burden and age (4.55), living with patient (4.33), duration of caregiving (4.71), category of mental illness (6.00) and duration of mental illness (5.93) and between coping strategies and previous experience regarding caregiving (4.80) and duration of mental illness (4.91) and there is no association found with other socio demographic data. Relationship between burden and coping strategies shows r value for no burden: ( -0.49), mild: ( -0.06), moderate: ( -1). These values interpret that there is negative relation among burden and coping strategies. Conclusion: Findings of the study reveals that caregivers had a mild burden and partially adoptive coping strategies in all aspects, there is an association between burden and coping strategies of caregiver with their selected socio demographic data and negative relation between burden and coping strategies, which may be by experience caregivers adopt various coping strategies as burden occurs.
Keywords: Coping Strategies, Burden, Caregiver, Mental Disorder Client